Can you guarantee that the completed building will match the performance predicted by the analysis in its day-to-day operations?
- No, you cannot guarantee with complete certainty that the completed building day-to-day operations will yield performances that will match what was predicted through software simulations. There are significant amounts of unpredictability and uncertainty inherent to meteorological conditions and how the interact with the built environment. As such, unforeseen fluxes to weather conditions can cause building performance to fluctuate, especially if these factors were not included in edge case simulations. Moreover, for our particular simulations, we excluded the surrounding site context from our analysis, so the dynamics between our building and the site in the real world may produce a performance that differs from what was estimated.
When choosing settings for each of the building performance factors, should you always choose the setting that gives the absolute lowest predicted energy use?
No, the setting that gives the absolute lowest predicted energy use should not always be selected. Often times, such settings are often quite expensive, require a large spatial footprint to be implemented, or may contrast with the building aesthetics desired by the client.
How can you use Insight feedback to make design choices regarding materials, lighting, PV, etc.?
Insight feedback can help to identify the most important features and parameters that are impacting your overall building performance. This greatly simplifies the process of designers having to selected features to make targeted adjustments to improve building performance. Moreover, Insight offers an array of setting options and recommendations for each of the feature categories which provides designers with concrete materials, technologies, etc. that they can readily seek out and implement.
4D simulations are often used to show the construction sequence for an entire project, but shorter simulations that focus on a specific period of time are also useful.
- Can you provide examples of how a simulation that focuses on a 1 or 2 week period could be useful for planning?
What level of detail should be included in a 4D simulation?
- Should you include all of the elements in the building model?
How can the feedback shown in a 4D simulation help you to optimize the project schedule?
- What are the main benefits of linking model elements to the project schedule?
How can model-based quantity takeoff improve the design process?
How can designers improve their designs using the information provided by preliminary estimates of the cost of building their design ideas?